Monday, January 25, 2016

With my oldest girl in High School I have been catapulted into the world of boyfriends and strong emotions. When the one-month anniversary came up I got the panicked,

"Mom!!!!!! Help me plan something, help me decorate!"

With 2.5 hours to go this is what we came up with:

Horrid picture, I know, but winter lighting is not perfect in my kitchen.

We started with candy plates. To make these we bent foil cake pans into heart shapes, lined them with star mints, and heated them in the oven at 350 for 8 minutes.

Our two-bedroom apartment, packed to the gills with 4 people and 2 cats has no private spaces. So we pulled 2 pair of sparkly curtains out of the tote full of curtains and tablecloths, pinned them together, and draped them over the table. A couple of low boxes covered with a table cloth and two large pillows became furniture.

We grabbed tealight candles left from Christmas and a pad of Craftsmith foiled paper. My son quickly punched a fluted circle for each candle and placed them in my bread pans. We lined those up against the far side of the sparkly cave. The edges of the bread pans protected the candles from the curtains.

AJ's sweetie is a wrestler and must watch what he eats before a match. With that in mind we had to come up with a limited menu. She decorated rice cakes with writing icing and served Martinelli's in wine glasses.

It's not easy finding things for these two to do that will fit within my list of rules for 9th grade sweethearts. But celebrating the little things is important at any age. Yep, I was glad to help, and enjoyed it thoroughly!!!

Saturday, January 16, 2016

I just love dressing paper up with lace, and trinkets, and lots of sparkle.

~ Love ~

For the twine wrap around the frame I left a loop on the outside of the frame, passed the twine under the frame to the inside, over the frame, and through the loop. Then I gently tightened it and made another loop.

Saturday, January 2, 2016

Winter windows just aren't complete without a few paper snowflakes. I never was very good at getting my folds exact so that all six sides of my design matched. This winter I discovered how to make snowflakes with my Kreaxions punches.

Problem Solved!!!

Tutorial:

To begin this project you will need a circle cutter, protractor, punch #301, and scissors.

Step1:

Cut a 5 inch circle from Cardstock.

Divide the circle into 12 sections.

This is easiest to measure at 30 degree intervals with a protractor.

Step 2:

Punch every other line with Punch #301,

centering the punch exactly each time.

Step 3:

Cut the circle again with the Circle Cutter set at 4 inches.

Step 4:

Punch the in between lines with Punch #301.

Step 5:

Trim the outside set of punch marks.

I curved mine toward the center, as drawn on the paper.

It may take a few tries to get the hang of punching exactly on the lines.

If your first few tries come out a little damaged cut them in half and use them as layers, peaking out from behind a photo or card sentiment.